[SEL] A blow to the Old Machinery Movement in Australia

[peter ogborne]

When i first posted to the list on the above subject i felt very despondent 
about the future of our hobby. Things have not changed . What all this is 
about is the unprecedented hunger for scrap steel by China . I can 
understand farmers who have a lot of old scrap that has been lying around 
for ever trying to make some cash from the sale of it . Unfortunately there 
is going to be included in that scrap the sort of things that we collect and 
restore and then display to the public . The development of China and it's 
manufacturing industries ,the affect on the rest of the world especially the 
large manufacturing countries ,i.e. the US and Europe will be devastating. 
My country ,Australia may be OK but only as a quarry ,a source for raw 
material but never again as a manufacturer .This side of things died years 
ago , but the US will suffer or probably is now suffering ,just look around 
you and see how many things are now made in China. The cheap labour costs 
and their demand as a consumer is frightening!This is of course 
progress...........not much we can do about it .

I do feel sorry for those of us who are new to this hobby ,it will now be so 
much more difficult to ''Find'' the beautiful old engine in some farmers 
paddock or shed . The value of engines will rise ,nothing will be given away 
. When i think back to when a friend and i found a almost Compleat 1904 
Ruston Proctor portable steam engine. It was given to us by a farmer who in 
past years had sold the engine to a scrap merchant twice , it had never been 
collected . That engine is now perfectly restored and is shown to the public 
regularly .That farmer saw the engine in  it's restored state before he died 
,he was so glad that he had given it to us and the scrap merchant had found 
it too difficult to collect .
I can only implore those who have ''scrap '' to consider we restorers before 
you sell it to the Scrapie .
Peter Ogborne
Little Grove ,Albany
West Australia
''Heart of the Rainbow Coast ''
jopeter at omninet.net.au